The Sixth International ESSWE Conference: Western Esotericism and deviance

1-3 June 2017, University of Erfurt, Germany

One
‘master narrative‘ in the Study of Western Esotericism is that esoteric
ideas, authors and currents have been subject to processes of othering,
marginalization, rejection or prohibition by dominant discourses. For
some scholars, this social aspect has been one of the main criteria for
defining the very concept of ‘Western Esotericism’. However, recent
approaches that have highlighted the entanglement of esoteric ideas and
mainstream culture point to the need for developing a more nuanced
picture of the relationship between esoteric and mainstream discourse,
both in pre-modern as well as contemporary times. The conference theme
thus calls for a closer examination of this master narrative by
specifically addressing the social and cultural embeddedness of esoteric
ideas, authors and currents in Western History.